This time, we're going to talk to you about how the transfer system has been reworked, and what we've done to improve the system since Pro Cycling Manager 2017.

The Transfer System AI has been totally revised in Pro Cycling Manager 2018. To approach this, we used feedback from the community that pointed out several important criteria in creating a better transfer system.

These were:

Making turn-over closer to reality

Making Nationality a key element in cycling transfers, especially with respect to pro continental and continental teams

More realistic transfers with regard to rider choices.

We took these three elements as a guideline in order to have a mechanic as realistic as possible.

AI teams will base their recruitment strategy on their team goal (what type of riders they want to recruit). It is very important as it guides the AI's decisions to renew a contract or recruit a new rider as well as impacting the riders' will to join or stay in this team or not. The team goal may change at some point, causing a team to have to adopt a new recruitment strategy, which can result in a small yet significant turnover within the team riders

For example, a team that relies primarily on tour riders and sprinters may wish to strengthen with regards to northern classics such as the Paris-Roubaix, and so will look for a cyclist (within their budget) better able to help with the requirements to excel at that race, and less focused on sprints.

The budget of the team is the other main element in the AI, as it will directly impact how aggressive a team is on the market. Both in the number of players they buy and in their quality. Should a team receive a large increase in their budget, an upset in the market may be caused, just like in reality!

Nationality is now a critical and delicate element towards setting up a team. Some teams have regional or national directions (dictated by their sponsors), whereas for others it's of minimal importance. We've taken to account these differences in the new engine. By being specific on what nationalities you can recruit, however, the number of riders available to you are reduced. Some teams will instead look for riders of unusual nationalities if they need a role filled, and find no-one available.

The transfer engine now also manages a riders' preferences. Nationality of their team, their role, their salary, but also their loyalty to a team (which allows you to have cyclists that tend to stay in the same team) in order to have as realistic a set as possible. Of course, all of these elements are modifiable in the database.

To help us test the efficacy of the transfers, we set up development tools allowing us to launch long-term tests by seeing how the peloton evolved over one, two, five or even ten years, to control the changes and settings of our parameters.

Discover the way your team will evolve, and how other players will fight you on the market, and build the best possible team out of your favourite riders!

Tour de France 2018 on PlayStation 4 & Xbox One and Pro Cycling Manager 2018 on PC, will release in retail stores and for download June 28th.